The Yucatan has much more to offer than the crazy Cancun spring break parties it's famous for. It was after reading the trusted Lonely Planet did I become aware the Yucatan peninsula had much more to offer than just spring break. Local festivals, the beach, trekking through the jungle to find ancient ruins, and exotic animals of the jungle were a few of the highlights that intrigued me. We caught a local festival in the Yucatan capital of Merida. The beaches of Playa del Carmen and Cozumel were some of the most beautiful we've been on! The Yucatan is also the center of the ancient Mayan empire and is where the concentration of ruins is greatest, of which, many have only been recently discovered and many have yet to be excavated. Their advanced knowledge of building and astronomy are still being discovered. The best part of the trip was the people of Mexico and their genuine hospitality. On many occassions, pushy salesmen turned into helpful locals. After politely saying no, they would in turn ask if we needed help with where we were going. If it wasn't for their help, our bus adventures would have been much more frustrating.
Continue reading to see more pictures!
Pictures of Merida, Cozumel, and Playa del Carmen
Our adventure this time starts after landing in Cancun. Our first stop is a 4.5 hour bus ride away in the capital of the Yucatan, Merida. Why the rush? The central streets of Merida are closed to traffic every Sunday while the locals come out to dance, sing, and eat at the main plaza. It's a weekly festival! This along with afternoon fiestas are traditions we need to establish here in the US! Our flight landed around 1pm and after getting out of the airport, going through customs, and learning how to ride the buses, we were shocked when we arrived in time to watch the entire town dance to live music in the open streets, bands playing outside cafes, people everywhere enjoying themselves, and of course street vendors selling yummies. We even caught an American TV crew shooting a special on local cuisine there that night. We were hungry and bold enough to try some good street food and ate dinner for a couple dollars.
Not wanting to miss any of the party, we enjoyed ourselves before finding a place to sleep for the night! We walked the festivities with our packs and after things died down a little, we went hunting for a place to sleep. With the help of the tourist information lady we talked to at the bus station, we went to over half a dozen hotels before finding one we were completely satisfied with. We were armed with a promotion from the bus station and ended up staying at a clean first rate hotel for over half off the posted rate in the lobby. Janae and I were exhausted! Flying their that day, long bus ride, and enjoying the night of festivities! What a first day!
Uxmal
We were up early to catch a bus to Uxmal, an ancient Mayan city nestled in the Yucatan jungle. This site is famous for its Magician's pyramid, elaborate Governor's palace, nunnery, and great pyramid. We arrived in the late morning and found the place with just enough other visitors to not feel too alone and also not feel like being trapped in tour group hell. The city was fairly open and we were free to walk virtually anywhere we wanted - even climbing to the top of the great pyramid. The steps were steep and later found out the steep steps of the pyramids at Chichen Itza caused the fall and death of 2 visitors just earlier in the year. The views from the top of the surrounding buildings and jungle was well worth the climb! Good thing we took the venture to the top because of the ruins we visited, this was the only pyramid that we were allowed to climb.
Uxmal Pictures
Bus ride from hell
Our bus ride back to Cancun where our timeshare condo was awaiting us was a true test of patience. We rode to Merida in a first-class bus. Unbeknownst to us, the second class bus, didn't take the freeway but the old highway through
EVERY small town along the way. The ride took 8 hours! I just about lost it with the speed bumps every 15 seconds. The bus would slowly accelerate from first to second then from second to third then immediately breaking for the next speed bump. This went on for hours! We should have taken the first class ticket back to Cancun. Unfortunately we didn't speak enough Spanish so the nice lady at the ticket office wasn't able to explain the difference. We learned our lesson quickly and paid a couple dollars more and only took direct and first class buses from then on.
Tulum
Tulum is an ancient Mayan city situated on top of cliffs overlooking the Carribean. The ruins themselves were impressive, but it was the view of the ruins over the beach that was most impressive. The city was laid out such that shadows from the sun would on the equinoxes would line up different buildings and structures. Thirty days after the shadow from the main temple drew a line from the temple to the outer gates of the temple continuing to the outer gates of the city was the time to start planting.
The beaches and water cannot be described. Good pictures do a little more justice.
Tour group to Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza is the largest of the ancient ruins we visited. This place felt like tour group hell. Perhaps it's because we went there with a tour group ourselves! Public transport is spotty to this location that it was the best way to travel. We had actually passed it late in the day on our way from Merida to Cancun - the only public transportation option. We didn't want to repeat any part of our previous 8 hour bus ride! There were some benefits of going with a tour...shopping! I'm being completely facetious as all shopping from tour groups is pre-arranged with kick-backs for the tour guides. Fortunately, it was nothing like our tour in Cairo where we spent most the afternoon going from shop to shop. We made one stop where they sold among other items Mayan cartouche! The first thing to my mind was the tour guide in Egypt trying to pitch us on one of these personalized cartouches in heiroglyphics. This must be a tourist scam stolen from Egypt. The parallels are too similar; advanced ancient civilizations, pyramids of different sorts, and tour guides pitching heiroglyphic cartouches. By the way, I didn't see one ancient Mayan cartouche while visiting the ruins - I think it's strictly an Egyptian thing.
Fortunately the shopping stop was short and were able to visit other cool sites en-route such as the Dzitnup Cenote. A cenote is a limestone sinkhole filled with fresh water often decorated with stalagtites and stalagmites. I had no idea we were going to make a quick swimming stop or I would have brought a towel and a change of clothing. We went down to enjoy the impressive site. When I saw others jumping in from a platform about 20 feet over the water I couldn't resist. I took everything out of my pockets, took off my shirt and shoes, and jumped in again and again. The water was great and I'm glad I didn't pass up an opportunity to swim in a cenote! (Pictures)
Chichen Itza
Our tour guide LOVED to talk and LOVED the sun. Bad combination when out in the heat of the day. He chose the spots with the most sun to stop and talk about the sites we were at. Not long after we started, Janae wandered to find shade. Soon after, I joined her. I had read up on the city from my Lonely Planet and quickly realized he was skipping a lot of the major cites in the large city. He did warn us he was giving us a brief overview allowing us time after his tour to re-visit any place we wanted. Given the size of the place and the heat of the day, who would want to walk back through to go see the gems he had purposely skipped? Armed with a map and brief background of the different structures, we went off exploring on our own. Great sites in the shade of the jungle were missed by the group. I guess the guide just loved the sun too much.
Chichen Itza, although not obvious to the eye, was designed on a grid. At cross sections of the grid, the buildings would be lined up in such a way that sounds would echo from that spot. While walking through a large field, our guide stopped at the first of these secret spots and clapped his hands. We heard multiple reverbs as the clap echoed through the city.
El Castillo
The main pyramid, El Castillo, is a architectural representation of the Mayan calendar. The 9 tiers of the pyramid are divided into two by a staircaseto represent the 18 months of the Mayan year. Each face has 91 steps to the top and adding the top makes 365 days of the year. The 52 flat panels on each side of the pyramids represent the 52 year Mayan calendar cylce. Their calendar system was remarkably advanced. They calculated the year to be 365.242 days, 17.28 seonds off the truth, marginally closer than the Gregorian calendar.
Of Shadows and Sports
A large sports arena where a an ancient game was played by hitting a ball with the hips through a small hole three stories off the ground doubled as a feat of astronomy. The picture here is of the shadow cast by the hoop the players had to get the ball through. At different times of the year, the shadow would cast onto different carvings found at the bottom of the wall representing different seasons of the year. Some engravings dipict scenes of decapitation leading some to speculate losers of the game were executed.
El Caracol (the snail) was named for the spiral staircase in this observatory. Four doors are decorated with iconic masks of their god, Chac-Mool and face the cardinal directions. Windows atop the observatory face different stars on specific dates.
More pictures of Chichen Itza
XCaret
We spent a day at XCaret, an eco-tourism park where we snorkelled in their underground river, saw parrots, flamingos, howler monkeys, giant turtles, a jaguar and a panther. Their night show was the highlight where we saw singing, dancing, and exhibitions of the different games they played. One where they played by hitting the ball through a hole with their hip and another where they played a field-hockey like game with a ball that was on fire!
More pictures of XCaret
